February 2012
8 posts
6 tags
Julianna Barwick // The Magic Place
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 22ND 2011 1YRON’S TOP 52 RECORDS OF 2011 RANKING: #33 Julianna Barwick’s The Magic Place was one of the easiest records to fall in love with last year. After self-releasing her Sanguine and Florine EPs, Barwick signed to Asthmatic Kitty in 2010 to begin work on her first proper full length. The process of recording and self-releasing those two EPs -...
6 tags
Radiohead // The King Of Limbs
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 18TH 2011 1YRON’S TOP 52 RECORDS OF 2011 RANKING: #28 By releasing their music with little prior warning, Radiohead have bucked the trend of sustaining hype or anticipation. The King Of Limbs, the band’s eighth studio album, was scheduled for release on February 19th and officially announced a mere five days prior. Its actual release date was brought...
1 tag
Yuck // Yuck
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 15TH 2011 1YRON’S TOP 52 RECORDS OF 2011 RANKING: #52 Brushing up on your Yuck (doesn’t that sound fun?) is a task that can leave you more or less on the fence. On the one hand, this was one of the more memorable debut albums of 2011 and it only grew in stature as the year progressed. But then again, it’s a record that tries so hard to recreate...
9 tags
PJ Harvey // Let England Shake
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 14TH 2011 1YRON’S TOP 52 RECORDS OF 2011 RANKING: #1 The impact of Let England Shake on PJ Harvey’s career cannot be underestimated. At a time when the listenership of the Yeovil-born singer songwriter seemed to be gradually shrinking, it was unthinkable that something like a war record could catapult her artist back into the limelight to a position...
9 tags
Tim Hecker // Ravedeath, 1972
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 14TH 2011 1YRON’S TOP 52 RECORDS OF 2011 RANKING: #3 It’s perhaps beneficial to begin by marking out what Ravedeath, 1972 is not instead of what it is, for it is many of these things and a whole lot more. Tim Hecker has been quietly mining the sonics of what has become termed ‘ambient’ for ten years, never quite achieving mainstream...
6 tags
Nicolas Jaar // Space Is Only Noise
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 14TH 2011 1YRON’S TOP 52 RECORDS OF 2011 RANKING: #13 Not only was Space Is Only Noise the first truly great ‘electronic’ album of 2011, it transpired to be one of the most essential. Nicolas Jaar was born in New York but spent his pre-teen years in Santiago, Chile before moving back there for his studies. He debuted three years prior to...
14 tags
James Blake // James Blake
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 7TH 2011 1YRON’S TOP 52 RECORDS OF 2011 RANKING: #15 In a fantastic review of James Blake on Tiny Mix Tapes, Jakob Darof begins by drawing a necessary parallel between the record in question to that of Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion, and how fans can build hype around an album by declaring it the best of the year before that year has...
9 tags
Cut Copy // Zonoscope
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 7TH 2011 1YRON’S TOP 52 RECORDS OF 2011 RANKING: #14 Listening to In Ghost Colours for the first time, it’s probably advantageous to remember where you are or what you’re doing. Cut Copy’s second release is the kind of nostalgia-inflected, synth-brimming juggernaut that sounds fantastic no matter what’s going on around you, the kind...
January 2012
5 posts
7 tags
Hercules And Love Affair // Blue Songs
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: JANUARY 31ST 2011 1YRON’S TOP 52 RECORDS OF 2011 RANKING: #48 Anyone who fell in love with Hercules and Love Affair’s self-titled debut in 2008 may have found it difficult to accept the marked difference of its more thoughtful follow-up Blue Songs. Hercules And Love Affair was one of the year’s boldest endeavors and mined classic 70’s disco along...
12 tags
Destroyer // Kaputt
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: JANUARY 25TH 2011 1YRON’S TOP 52 RECORDS OF 2011 RANKING: #2 Most records worth listening to have to fight their way into people’s lives, they must somehow fit into a pre-existing musical groove that continues to fluctuate and ultimately expand over time. Kaputt is different because it has created a space all its own, and people have responded to that...
7 tags
Iron & Wine // Kiss Each Other Clean
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: JANUARY 24TH 2011 1YRON’S TOP 52 RECORDS OF 2011 RANKING: #44 A year since it’s release, the idea of listening to Kiss Each Other Clean from start to finish doesn’t seem so scary after all. Iron & Wine’s fourth studio album and first for a major label, critics and fans alike were divided by Sam Beam’s increasingly fuller and layered...
7 tags
The Decemberists // The King Is Dead
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: JANUARY 17TH 2011 1YRON’S TOP 52 RECORDS OF 2011 RANKING: #21 The Hazards Of Love could’ve finished The Decemberists off once and for all. Similar to their 2006 album The Crane Wife (itself littered with songs in three parts, overarching literary narratives and linguistic tongue twisters), Hazards was the kind of album that should be commended for its bold...
4 tags
Smith Westerns // Dye It Blonde
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: JANUARY 17TH 2011 1YRON’S TOP 52 RECORDS OF 2011 RANKING: #41 It’s a shame that Smith Westerns released Dye It Blonde so early on in 2011. Had it been released later, it could’ve become one of the year’s biggest breakaway hits through mere word of mouth. Following their self-titled 2009 debut, this Chicago-based trio have risen in prominence...
November 2011
3 posts
5 tags
Robyn // Body Talk Pt. 3
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 22ND 2010 Robyn’s Body Talk series was pop music’s most ambitious undertaking of 2010. Individually, the three releases served to gently break the much-ignored Swede into the mainstream with equal thrust. It’s interesting that along with the release of this less-than-stellar-and-should-really-be-called-an-EP final installation came the release...
3 tags
Twin Shadow // Forget
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 15TH 2010 Twin Shadow’s debut Forget was produced by Grizzly Bear bassist Chris Taylor, and it’s a fact worth remembering. It appears one thing we can deduce in the year since Forget was released is that, despite its reliance on ‘that which has gone before’, it formed a solid blueprint thanks to its stylish grooves later found on...
4 tags
Girl Talk // All Day
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 15TH 2010 All Day was the first record I heard by Girl Talk, and it has left a pretty mediocre impression on someone who was always intrigued by the potential of sampling and mixing in music. Since I Left You by The Avalanches is one of my favourite records of the past ten years and others such as …..Endtroducing by DJ Shadow inspire more respect for their...
October 2011
5 posts
4 tags
How To Dress Well // Love Remains
VARIOUS RELEASE DATES: SEPTEMBER 21ST // OCTOBER 19TH // 31ST 2010 Love Remains is an annoying record to discover. There, I said it. Like so many new bands who promise something different, How To Dress Well have grown in the year since their debut was released through massive support from those grossly influential online journals who shall remain unnamed. As a matter of fact, How To Dress Well...
4 tags
Warpaint // The Fool
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 25TH 2010 The Fool was easily one of the most memorable records released in 2010. LA-based art rockers Warpaint supposedly spent six years working on this, their first proper full-length debut and the results possess a slow-burning, trascendental quality that feels so intimate as though it were written on the skin. Ever since, the burgeoning rise of Warpaint can...
7 tags
Sufjan Stevens // The Age Of Adz
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 11TH 2010 The obstructions surrounding the release of Sufjan Stevens’ The Age Of Adz are now well documented. As perhaps indie’s most beloved and overwhelmingly restless artist, Stevens somehow allowed five years to pass by since the release of the towering Illinois. There were rumours of an extended hiatus and then the revelation of the mysterious and...
5 tags
Antony And The Johnsons // Swanlights
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 11TH 2010 In the thirteen years since the release of their self-titled debut, Antony And The Johnsons have evolved into one of the more reliable alternative musical outfits. The 2005 Mercury Prize-winning I Am A Bird Now was a slow burner, a record that has since become well known for its rousing exploration of personal freedom, acceptance and gender identity. Its...
5 tags
Belle And Sebastian // Write About Love
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 11TH 2010 Belle And Sebastian have never been big on giant leaps forward and yet somehow Dear Catastrophe Waitress was the biggest advancement that the Glaswegian septet have made in the space of the past decade. That record reigned in Trevor Horn on production and triggered a move towards a more polished, poppy sound that has served as their direction ever since....
September 2011
4 posts
6 tags
Deerhunter // Halcyon Digest
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 27TH 2010 Only a few bands are making albums that not only sustain a relevant output but actually better themselves with each successive release. Deerhunter are one of those bands. Even with side project Atlas Sound, frontman Bradford Cox has proven that the heart and soul of Deerhunter is rooted in a shared experience of emotional reflection. Microcastle proved...
7 tags
No Age // Everything In Between
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 27TH 2010 Everything In Between proved to be a massive leap forward for LA punk-duo No Age. Proper debut Nouns didn’t really do anything to establish them beyond a few strong, albeit scuzzy hooks, and in some sense there’s a similar theme running throughout this record. They’re never going to be your New Favourite Band, and they’re really...
6 tags
The Walkmen // Lisbon
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 14TH 2010 Certain albums can become all too often associated with a specific time and place. Take The Walkmen’s Lisbon, for example. With nary a reference to the Portuguese capital in sight, it’s a beautifully full-bodied record stained in late afternoon sunshine and languid repose that feels just like wandering around the city with a desire to...
6 tags
Robyn // Body Talk Pt. 2
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 6TH 2010 “We dance to the beat of false math and unrecognised genius.” So sings Robyn on We Dance To The Beat, one of many brilliant slabs of electro-pop brilliance offered up on Body Talk Pt. 2. Perhaps she’s being indirectly self-referential, but it’s a truth that’s somehow just too difficult to believe. One year on from the...
August 2011
2 posts
3 tags
Sufjan Stevens // All Delighted People EP
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 20TH 2010 It seems now that Sufjan Stevens did anything and everything except release a proper follow-up to his 2005 magnum opus Illinois. There was of course the collection of it’s ‘b-sides’, The Avalanche, which itself ran to almost eighty minutes, and then the appreciated but not essential culmination of five years’ worth of Christmas EPs,...
5 tags
Arcade Fire // The Suburbs
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 2ND 2010 It’s interesting to me how time can affect the reputation of a record. That’s the reason you’re reading this right now. Neon Bible, the second album from Montreal indie rock band Arcade Fire, was released in early 2007 to near-unanimous praise from all corners of the music press. Following on from not only one of the strongest debut...
July 2011
2 posts
4 tags
Best Coast // Crazy For You
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: JULY 26TH 2010 I’m pretty sure more than two albums released in 2010 featured kitties on their covers but two in particular stood out and where the Klaxons may have produced nothing more than a stand out cover with their disappointing sophomore album, at least Best Coast matched their kitsch record cover with equally memorable pop hooks. Fronted by vocalist Beth...
3 tags
M.I.A. // /\/\ /\ Y /\
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: JULY 12TH 2010 On May 25th 2010 the New York Times published an article via Lynn Hirschberg which effectively demolished an image that Maya Arulpragasam had built up from the ground over the five years prior. The timing couldn’t have been worse; M.I.A. was gearing up for the release of her third album MAYA, following on from Kala, itself one of the most...
June 2011
4 posts
3 tags
Baths // Cerulean
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: JUNE 22ND 2010 Baths is the brainchild of Will Wiesenfeld, a resident Los Angeles beat maker whose debut album Cerulean was released one year ago to limited fanfare. One of the most difficult things about Cerulean is defining its sound; genre-hopping beat boys who are driving forth a particular sound are experimenting with sampling and layering in a way they weren’t...
3 tags
The Chemical Brothers // Further
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: JUNE 14TH 2010 Further continues a well-worn process of emerge and retreat that the Chemical Brothers have been practicising for almost two decades now. On this, their seventh studio album proper and first for Parlophone records, they stripped away the mess that made We Are The Night and most of Push The Button such deadweights. Free from any guest vocalists and...
4 tags
Robyn // Body Talk Pt. 1
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: JUNE 14TH 2010
Robyn’s Body Talk series is one of the more interesting projects to look back on in the year that has passed, partly because it came in three stages but mostly because it was one of the most ambitious and successfully straight forward pop releases in recent memory. Announcing the release of Body Talk Pt. 1 automatically suggests further installments...
4 tags
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti // Before Today
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: JUNE 7TH 2010 What a wasted opportunity this album wasn’t. For six years Ariel Pink circled the periphery of the alternative freak folk circuit after signing to Animal Collective’s Paw Tracks label in 2004. The process of re-issuing Pink’s records began with The Doldrums and despite high promise never managed to quite tap into the scene the way one would...
May 2011
5 posts
5 tags
Tame Impala // Innerspeaker
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: MAY 21ST 2010 It would be great to think that bands from Perth are automatically more interesting than if they were from any other city. Of course that doesn’t make the individuals more interesting though, and I’m sure many Perthians would like to get out of the city if they weren’t so massively isolated from the rest of the world. Tame Impala sound...
7 tags
Janelle Monáe // The ArchAndroid
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: MAY 18TH 2010
The world of popular music in 2011 is a pretty fickle place and the ones at the top so rarely have anything original or unique to say. In some ways it’s always been like this, albeit less extreme; the general decline of popular culture is not only rapid, it’s sad, and you can’t sell millions of records without being safe,...
6 tags
LCD Soundsystem // This Is Happening
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: MAY 18TH 2010
The idea of listening to an album by LCD Soundsystem all the way through from start to finish, let alone reviewing one, was a prospect that daunted me one year ago. I must admit to having misunderstood the angle from which James Murphy’s wonder creation was projecting since at least now, in the aftermath of the group’s expiration, it becomes...
5 tags
Foals // Total Life Forever
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: MAY 10TH 2010 The frequent disappointment of a band’s beleaguered sophomore album appears to have evaded Oxford’s Foals, following on the heels of a debut so well received by an adoring British music press. This is apparent one year on as much as it was when Total Life Forever was released on an unsuspecting public. Where Antidotes was immediate and the songs dictated...
5 tags
Broken Social Scene // Forgiveness Rock Record
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: MAY 4TH 2010
Forgiveness Rock Record should probably have been a bigger deal than it actually was. Five years since their last release proper, Broken Social Scene were a very different animal. And yet this doesn’t always have to be perceived as a bad thing; the sprawling sound of You Forgot It In People and 2005’s self-titled are part of what made them so...